The Burren Green ''(Calamia tridens)'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the othe ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 37–42 mm. The length of the forewings is 17–18 mm. Whitish green, of the o more or less suffused with grey except along costa, showing a pale curved outer band; fringe white; — in ab. ''immaculata'' Stgr. the whole forewing is uniformly green, with no race of a white reniform. and the hindwings of the male are not fuscous; — ab. ''thalassina'' ab. nov. arrenhas the forewing glossy dark sea-green, with the outer half of fringe greenish; the hindwing green flushed with darker green and the veins green: head and thorax sea green like the forewings; the abdomen white as in typical ''virens'': the description is made from 1 male and 2 females in the Tring Museum, unfortunately without locality label, but probably of German origin; 1 female has a diffuse whitish smear on the discocellular, the others are immaculate: the ab. ''rufata'' ab. nov. arrenhas the reniform filled up with rufous fuscous or with the white discocellular edged with rufous, and the whole hindwing brownish grey with the fringe white.

Biology

The moth flies in one generation from late June to September . The larvae feed on various grasses including

Purple Moor Grass ''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid ...

, and flowering plants such as ''

Stellaria ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively sm ...

'' and ''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a ...

''.

Distribution

It is found in the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

, Central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, (not Britain but found in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, found in southern Sweden, not in southeast France, not in Spain, not in southern Italy), West and Central

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

, South

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

, West

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

to the Altai Mountains and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

. Also

Issyk-kul Issyk-Kul (also Ysyk-Köl, ky, Ысык-Көл, lit=warm lake, translit=Ysyk-Köl, , zh, 伊塞克湖) is an endorheic lake (i.e., without outflow) in the Northern Tian Shan mountains in Eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the seventh-deepest lake i ...

, and the

Tarbagatai Mountains The Tarbagatai Mountains ( mn, , , translit. ''Tarvagatai nuruu'', literally: "range with marmots"; ; kk, Тарбағатай жотасы, ''Tarbağatai jotasy'') are a range of mountains located in the north-western parts of Xinjiang, China ...

Ireland

The vernacular name Burren Green reflects its presence in the Burren region in western Ireland, its only station on the islands of the North Atlantic. It was first collected 1949 by William Stuart Wright and its identification made by Eric Classey who was sent specimens by Wright. An alternative name proposed for the species, the Claddagh, never gained acceptance. The Irish population has been described as a subspecies, ''occidentalis'' Cockayne 1954

Notes

#''The flight season refers to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

References

* Classey, E. W. 1950. ''Luceria (Calamia) virens'' in Britain. ''Entomologist’s Gazette'' 1: 185. * Wright, W.S. 1951 Moth new to British and Irish lists in Co. Clare. '' Irish Naturalists' Journal'' 10: 135

External links

UK Moths

Fauna Europaea

Taxonomy

Lepiforum.de

Vlindernet.nl
Hadeninae Moths described in 1766 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel {{Hadeninae-stub